"...if the courts should not interpert the Consitution, and decide what it says, then who should?"
That was Chief Justice Marshall's argument, that "the judicial Power" included the power of judicial review, the power to interpret the Consitution.
But the Consitution itself makes no such specific assignment of authority, and the oaths of office of everybody form the President on down to every soldier sworn into the Army requires that they "support and defend the Consititution of the United States." Since it would be impossible to do this *without* interpreting it, I hold that every official, elected or appointed is required and empowered to interpret the Consitiution, comesurate with their authority. And the authority of the President and the Congress is equal to that of the Supreme Court and superior to that of any of "the inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."
”and the oaths of office of everybody form the President on down to every soldier sworn into the Army requires that they "support and defend the Constitution of the United States."Yes, I remember taking that oath when I was inducted into the military. I also remember, when I arrived at basic, that they pointedly explained to me how my obligations to support that oath would be executed. Or as they so eloquently put it, “Son, there are two ways to do things in the military. There’s the military’s way, and then there’s the wrong way.”
” Since it would be impossible to do this *without* interpreting it, I hold that every official, elected or appointed is required and empowered to interpret the Constitution, commensurate with their authority.”
I concur, however I might not necessarily want that interpretation to be binding.
And the authority of the President and the Congress is equal to that of the Supreme Court and superior to that of any of "the inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish."
I’m, not sure what you are saying here. Do you mean that the President, or the Congress, can overrule the Supreme Court, or that the President can overrule a lower courts decision without the need for judicial review.